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			<h1>Cable monopolies</h1>
			<p>Day 00187: <time>Thursday, 2015 September 10</time></p>
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<p>
	I went down to Taco Bell again to use their Wi-Fi to research <abbr title="Internet service provider">ISP</abbr>s again.
	I&apos;ve tried searching on my mobile, but the tiny screen makes it difficult and many websites discriminate against mobile devices, refusing to show them the full available content and information.
	One of the first sites I found held bad news: <a href="http://www.cabletv.com/or/coos-bay"><q>Because of government licensing, cable companies don&apos;t typically overlap in the same area.</q></a> I think this is a lie, at least in part.
	There probably is only one cable provider in most areas, but I doubt it is due to government licensing.
	I hear that Comcast and Time Warner specifically avoid setting foot on each other&apos;s turf as part of an agreement between the two to preserve their own respective monopolies.
	I wouldn&apos;t be surprised if most of the other cable companies have that sort of agreement going as well.
	This means that we either have to choose Charter, or we have to choose a slower <abbr title="digital subscriber line">DSL</abbr> provider.
</p>
<p>
	I looked into their pricing, but it isn&apos;t all clear.
	All prices are given as being for the first year.
	Nowhere on the website does it mention what the price will rise to later.
	I spoke with a representative via Web chat that told me that the bill would rise $10 to $15 <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> per month after the initial year.
	Looking at their prices, they try to get you to bundle your services by offering discounts to do so.
	Internet service alone costs $40 ($39.99) <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> per month.
	My mother will probably also want television service, which together with Internet service, will cost a whopping $90 ($89.98) <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> per month.
	Throwing telephone service on top of that brings the bill to $90 ($89.97) <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> per month, one cent less than the bill would be without telephone service.
	If they&apos;re going to charge less with the telephone service added in, we might as well get that.
	Having a telephone at which to receive calls for interviews might mean the difference between getting a job and not.
	Plus, because it&apos;s a land line and not a line that follows me around, I can completely ignore all calls once I actually have a job, or at the very least, I can be unaware of calls until I get home with a reasonable excuse.
	I can tell my employer that while email reaches me right away wherever I am, telephone calls won&apos;t reach me until I get home.
	Premium channels are available for either $20 or $40 <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> more, but I doubt my mother will want those and I&apos;m not interested even in the basic television service.
	When she gets back, I&apos;ll discuss the options with her, then I will probably place the order for service using the Taco Bell Wi-Fi tomorrow.
</p>
<p>
	<strong>*UPDATE*:</strong> I spoke with my mother, and it seems that she didn&apos;t want my to order the service anyway.
	I was under the impression that she wanted this to be a bill I covered, but it seems that isn&apos;t the case.
	She wanted the bill to be under my name only if we had Comcast service as part of some money-saving scheme that doesn&apos;t apply to Charter service.
	The worst part is that she wanted me to hand my Social Security number over to Comcast.
	If I were to sign up for Comcast service, I certainly wouldn&apos;t give them my Social Security number.
	She asked me to try to set up the service, but said that she would cover the bill.
	I said I&apos;d get my stuff together and head down to Taco Bell to use their Internet connection to set up our own, but she didn&apos;t like that idea.
	She asked if I had tried calling Charter by telephone, so I reminded her that I don&apos;t have telephone service.
	What I didn&apos;t mention is that I&apos;d be willing to walk over thirty kilometers to find an Internet connection and order that way just to avoid making a single telephone call.
	I hate dealing with people (and machines) over the telephone.
	She ended up placing the order herself.
	While I much prefer Web forms and Web chats, she seems to usually prefer doing things over the telephone.
	She ordered Internet, television, and telephone service, though the bill was higher than I expected.
	They require the rental of cable boxes anywhere we want television, so she had rented two cable boxes, one for her bedroom and one for family use.
	The bill came to $104 ($103.95) <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> per month.
	Charter requires that we have one of their employees come in to set things up, they won&apos;t allow us to set them up ourselves.
	This person will come by on Tuesday, supposedly somewhere from 08:00 to 10:00, and the installation is supposed to take one to three hours.
	We&apos;ll see if they actually show up on time though.
	I guess I&apos;ll wait until then to start looking for work so I will have a telephone number to put on job applications.
	I won&apos;t put the telephone number anywhere that doesn&apos;t specifically request one though, so my resume will not have it and any place that requests resumes will not have the telephone number.
</p>
<p>
	I&apos;m likely headed back to Springfield this weekend, so with Internet service here almost up, I&apos;ll bring my server back with me.
	This will of course cause more down time likely than if I waited until service was set up here, but I honestly don&apos;t know when the next chance I&apos;ll have to visit Springfield will be.
	For that matter, I don&apos;t know when the Internet connection in Springfield will be cut off.
	Having the server back here will put my mind at ease more.
</p>
<p>
	I feel like everything I can accomplish for the time being is already complete.
	Tomorrow, I&apos;ll head down to Taco Bell again to update my <a href="/a/canary.txt">warrant canary</a> and my weblog.
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